An unconfirmed report suggests JJ Abrams and his team will shoot for four weeks around the capital of the United Arab Emirates. Tunisia, which doubled as Tatooine for the original Star Wars trilogy, is considered too politically unstable for a major Hollywood production to film there this time around.

Studio Disney is planning a new trilogy of films after purchasing all rights to the space saga in October 2012 for $4.05bn. Later movies in the series will move the focus to younger characters, while there are also proposals for spin-off "origins" films featuring characters such as Yoda, Boba Fett and Solo.

Episode VII will shoot mostly at London's Pinewood Studios for a Christmas 2015 release date. Alan Horn, the Disney chairman, said last week that filming had already begun on the new movie.